Ok, I'd like something I can point to here. I did a search, and I wound up pointing to over 5 threads with the different reasons. I'd like to have one thread showing why the alternatives are better than Creative Labs for desktop soundcards if I were to point someone to it over at HA. Thanks.

You could always point them here.

However, didn't notice anything about the Audigy 2 card.

Most important problems common to all Live and newer Creative cards:

- 48 KHz fixed output always when playing 44.1 KHz signals. Creative hasn't yet implemented a decent resampling algorithm in any of its cards, even comparable to the one of CS4630 based cards (TB Santa Cruz, for example).

- Bloated drivers and applications.

Edit: Also, some Creative cards have been verified to cause problems with Via chipsets (Live!) and some new motherboards (Audigy 1).

I've seen problems with Audigy2 too. Immediate crash when starting Quicktime 6.x with sound enabled, and sporadic crashes with strange sounds in a few games. Using latest drivers and everything.